[XcelLaX]

My customary Facebook write-up:

The Vancouver Winter Olympics may have had their grand finale with today's epic gold-medal hockey showdown between the United States and Canada, but that wasn't the only high-stakes grudge rematch on tap this weekend in North American sports. Last night the Swarm invaded Denver for the first stop on their annual February/March marathon road trip, and their third and final meeting with the Colorado Mammoth, having split the first two games (both in St. Paul), including a 15-5 Wooly-waxing administered by the Blue Crew last week.

The goaltending matchup is the same as last week's: Nick Patterson for the Swarm vs. Chris Levis for the Woolies. Cory Conway, who gave the Swarm nothing but trouble in their first meeting back in January but did not play last week, is also back in the Colorado lineup tonight. Grizzled veteran Derek Malawsky is making his Mammoth debut tonight, as are two familiar faces from '09 finally making their return to the Swarm lineup: Transition demon Ryan Sharp and "Air Gait" master Dan Marohl.

Tonight's winner obviously takes the season series, and also gets a big leg up on the loser as the West Division playoff race starts to heat up. With that much at stake, along with Colorado's motherlode of young offensive talent and another huge home crowd on their side, not to mention their still-perfect all-time record against the Swarm at Pepsi Center, this should be a barn-burner. At the very least, there's no way tonight's game will be a repeat of last week's thrashing.

First quarter: Nick Carlson wasted little time putting the Mammoth on the board on their first possession. But the Swarm offense has been applying some serious pressure of their own, and it didn't take much longer for Sharp to tie it back up again. A short time later Colorado went on the power play, and Alex Gajic snared a Malawsky rebound to give Colorado the lead again! The newcomers are already making a big impact for both teams. Sean Pollock stick-faked out Levis to score, and then Morgan set up Sharp for a breakaway ending with Sharp's second goal of the quarter! The Blue Crew seem to have picked up right where they left off last week. Swarm 3, Mammoth 2.

Second quarter: The Swarm opened the period with back-to-back power plays, and Aaron Wilson capitalized on both of them, first by scoring himself and then by setting up Callum Crawford. Wilson got two more later in the period, over Levis's left shoulder and then from a sharp angle on the other side, and the Swarm were up 7-2! Rookie Cliff Smith tried to spark his team by fighting Eric Pacey, even catching Pacey right in the nose, but Pacey wrestled him to the turf. Meanwhile Pacey's defensive teammates have been running circles around the Woolies' forwards. It took a milestone goal for two Mammoth forwards (Jamie Shewchuk's 200th career point, assisting on Brian Langtry's 200th career goal, a submariner from close range) to stop the bleeding for Colorado. 58 seconds later Langtry struck again, getting past Richard Morgan and then slipping the ball across Patterson's body and through a razor-thin opening on the left side of the net. An ill-advised Swarm pass turned the ball over to Colorado in the Swarm zone, Smith buried it and suddenly the Minnesota lead was down to 7-5. Jay Thorimbert extended the lead again after bulling his way past a defender. Sharp got sent to the sin bin in the final minute of the half, but the Swarm survived the first 56 seconds of the penalty unscathed. The Mammoth have finally gotten their act together again, but still so far, so good for the visitors and their fans, many of whom made the trip from the Twin Cities and are in the house tonight! Swarm 8, Mammoth 5.

Third quarter: A big turning point in the second minute of the quarter, and not a good one for the Blue Crew. Patty appears to stop a Jed Prossner shot, but it trickles past him and into the net! This sparked a Mammoth rally that soon had the game tied up again at 8-8. The Swarm offense has still performed well this quarter but has been unable to finish. It took a fluke turn of events to allow Minnesota to take the lead back, as Ryan Benesch took advantage of Levis losing sight of the ball to put it past him. Even that lead was short-lived, as Ilija Gajic and Langtry soon scored again to give Colorado their first lead since the opening quarter. With the crowd, the mile-high altitude and now the momentum on the Woolies' side, things have suddenly taken a big turn for the worse. Mammoth 10, Swarm 9.

Fourth quarter: What was that I said about momentum? One thing about box lacrosse is how suddenly it can be lost... and then regained. A cross-checking penalty gave the Swarm an early power-play, which the Swarm turned into a passing clinic ending with a Marohl tally to knot the game up at 10 apiece! Ilija Gajic soon grabs the lead back, but another stroke of good luck tied the game up again. Pollock fed Tim Campeau right in front of the net, but Campeau couldn't catch it in his stick head. Instead it bounced off the side of the head, but Levis wasn't expecting that and the ball wound up dropping behind him into the net. Josh Funk prevented a sure Mammoth goal with a cross-check and got penalized for it, but the Swarm killed the penalty. Timeout on the floor with 3:18 to go in regulation, and we are in for an amazing finish. Swarm 11, Mammoth 11.

The finish: Uh-oh... Alex Gajic got his hat trick, beating Patty on his right side almost immediately after play resumed. One more and this game belongs to Col - wait! Benesch lines up behind a teammate and puts one through heavy traffic and Levis's 5-hole! We're tied up again at 12 apiece with 1:37 to go. Once again the Swarm have overcome the crowd, the altitude and the Mammoth onslaught and still have a shot at the win. And they seized the opportunity, along with the ensuing faceoff. Levis deflected a shot from his right, but Tim Campeau immediately grabbed the rebound and scored from point-blank range! With 31.7 seconds left the Swarm have the lead! Thor won the faceoff again but the Mammoth D forced another turnover setting up one last Colorado rush. Patty was up to the task, and the clock finally expired, and with it the Swarm's winless record in Denver! Final score: Swarm 13, Mammoth 12.

Closing thoughts: I expected a barn-burner, and boy, did we ever get one. If the Swarm's two previous home wins had gotten their confidence back, a critical victory like this, won on the road in the final minute, must have just sent that confidence into the stratosphere going into the second half of the season. It also puts the Woolies squarely in the Swarm's rearview mirror as far as the West Division playoff race is concerned. With a 2-game lead on Colorado and owning the head-to-head tiebreaker, and the top four of the West's five teams making the playoffs, barring a major second-half collapse the 4-4 Swarm have all but punched their 2010 playoff tickets already, and can now set their sights on the division-leading Washington Stealth (now just 1.5 games ahead) and other division rivals for one of the top two places, and home-turf advantage for at least one playoff game. The Swarm have next weekend off, then travel to Philadelphia to face another struggling team in rebuilding mode, the once-proud Wings.

Photo gallery

Official game box score